Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
when she was in India and who she has seen on several occasions in the past year. She got the
feeling that Mrs. Allen was afraid of the man and Japp and Poirot suggest that Major Eustace
was blackmailing her — an idea which meets with approval from Miss Plenderleith. Poirot points
out though that it is unusual for blackmailers to kill their victims, normally it is the opposite
way round. Japp, as part of his look round the house, searches a cupboard under the stairs
which contains items such as umbrellas, walking sticks, tennis racquets, a set of golf clubs and
a small attaché-case which Miss Plenderleith hurriedly claims is hers. The two men sense Miss
Plenderleith’s heightened tension.
Miss Plenderleith proves to have an impeccable alibi for the time of the death and Poirot and
Japp interview Charles Laverton-West. He is stunned to find out that a murder investigation is
taking place and admits that he himself has no sound alibi. They also try to see Major Eustace
and hear that he has gone off to play golf. Mention of this suddenly makes Poirot see everything
clearly. Managing to get hold of Eustace later on, they notice that he smokes a brand of Turkish
cigarette whose stubs were found in the mews house, even though Mrs. Allen smoked a different
kind. They also prove that he wore a set of cufflinks, a damaged part of which was found in the
room where Mrs. Allen died and Japp arrests him for murder.
On a pretext, Poirot makes Japp call at the mews house and while they are there Poirot sneaks
another look at the cupboard under the stairs and sees that the attaché-case has gone. As Miss
Plenderleith has just come back from playing golf at Wentworth, they go there and find out that
she was seen on the links with the case. Later investigations show that she was seen to throw the
item into the lake there. The police retrieve it but find nothing in it. Poirot asks Japp and Miss
Plenderleith to call at his flat and they tell her of Eustace’s arrest. Poirot then tells her of his real
conclusions. From clues concerning missing blotting paper, Poirot deduces that Mrs. Allen had
written a letter just before she died, which if she killed herself, would indicate a suicide note. He
postulates that Miss Plenderleith came home, found her friend dead, driven to kill herself by the
actions of her blackmailer and was determined to avenge her — this wasn’t a murder made to
look like suicide but a suicide made to look like murder and thereby entrapping the blackmailer.
Miss Plenderleith placed the gun in Mrs. Allens right hand, despite the fact that she was lefthanded,
and the purpose of her trip to Wentworth was to hide there the dead lady’s golf clubs —
left-handed clubs, the attaché-case being a red herring to put the police off the trail. Convinced
that Major Eustace will be imprisoned for his other crimes, she agrees to tell the truth and save
the man from the gallows.
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